Does the NYSE provide a list of rules for determining when to close at 1:00 for a holiday? I have found a list of upcoming half-days here but I would like to know the rules so that I don't have to hard-code them in my application.

I found a list of all of the dates on which the NYSE closed early in its history here*. I could discern three rules for half-days that I would like to verify:

Thanksgiving: the Friday after Thanksgiving is always a half day (close at 1:00).

Christmas: if Dec 24th is a Mon, Tues, Wed, or Thur, close at 1:00.

July 4th: if July 4th is a Tues, Wed, or Fri, close at 1:00 on the previous day. If July 4th is a Thur, close at 1:00 on the next day.

The list of upcoming holidays shows that Wednesday, July 3, 2013 is a half-day. This conflicts with what looks like their previous policies. I'm guessing that in the future, July 5th will never be a half-day and that July 3rd will be a half-day if it falls on a Mon, Tues, Wed, or Thur (similar to the Dec 24th rule).

*According to that historic list I linked, the NYSE used to be open on Saturdays. I thought that was interesting.

Rather than hard-coding it into your application, you could have it read from a config file since they publish the schedule ahead of time. Also, if you think you're going to code it and not update it at least once a year you're wrong.
–
MatthewSep 5 '12 at 15:55

I shouldn't have said "hard-code". I would probably store those dates in a database somewhere.
–
user1214135Sep 5 '12 at 16:01